Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona

[Bob Baldwin jr]

John D : I actually got my immergence into professional racing with John Bishop back in Bridgeport Conn when John his wife and their boys were just getting IMSA started and running it out of their house. I had spoken with his wife Peggy who was telling me they were working 18 hour days to launch IMSA . Found myself going over there 4-5 evenings a week to help them out however I could . That opened a lot of doors for me and my family . My daughter went to work with NASCAR and when IMSA moved to Tampa Fla was asked to be the Communications Director there. That was IMSA 's Glory days. But sadly a lot of politicing going on.It still amazes me that with the France family $$$$ that they sold it. She stayed on through I think 2 ownership changes .When they finally moved to ST Pete she gave it up and went to work for the Tampa Bay Buc's .
IMSA today is a shell of what it used to be. Sad to have seen that happen . 2 seperate santioning bodies for Professional Sportscar racing is the equivelent of the IRL /CART wars. Sadly a unification of such will never happen.
AHHHH !!! The glory days of GTP and GTP lites were some of the most competitive racing that I have ever seen . I still try to get to at least 1 Historic Racing event per year just to remember the GLORY DAYS
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[Bob Baldwin jr]

DAN : I was thinking that it was Cale Y's last year driving for Junior J but i may be wrong. I was WRONG once before
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[Wesley Shelton]

I'll have to check my math, but my father was telling me he did the 24 one year (early 80's) and blew a motor on the front stretch as the green flag was being flown. He was home and in bed before the first driver change.

[Lance Zabrowski]

It's amazing how civil we can be when we talk about things that really matter , I'm glad its almost kart season soon up here, I think I'm getting cabin fever....that's obvious. I always feel a little more vital when Daytona starts the season, F1 is just around the corner, and the first swap meets are starting soon up here, and it was almost 26 degrees today, downright balmy!

[John Denman]

Bob, what ever happened to John Bishop? After his bypass surgery it seemed like he just dropped off the face of the earth. Amos was a good friend of his, and helped out with some rules management but after Pontiac pulled out Amos & Bunnie pulled away from racing. A few years ago Amos & Bunnie moved to Tampa, but I haven't kept up with him.
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John Denman
Producer for RTMP
http://www.kartweb.com

[Kevin Callahan]

I thought Mario was cool.

I had the chance to shake hands and talk with him briefly at the victory party after he won the LBGP in his World Championship year. Some other course workers and I decided to try and crash the party and since we had the cool uber credential. we walked right in. We somehow got a seat with the Hesketh mechanics at James Hunt's table. They were in an extreme party mood and kept ordering us bottle after bottle of champagne.

Pretty heady for a 21 year-old club racer with wanna-be pro dreams.

Anyway, Mario was quite gracious and went to every table after the formal victory celebration. I am pretty sure he was in a good mood after being the only American to win the USGP West.

[Dan Haynes]

bob, it might have been a different engine change that we're talking about. i do know that DW's crew did one in either 11 or 13 minutes. since he drove for JJ for awhile i assumed that was it.
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Blaise Haynes
#3 Arrow X1-CIK
TaG
Cook Racing Engines Parilla Leopard

[Bob Baldwin jr]

John D: I do not have the contact information for John other than to say he is living in Ocala Fla. Not sure what the story was with Peggy and I assume you know the tragedy with the boys.
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[Bob Baldwin jr]

Kevin C : The Andretti / Baldwin Feud: My daughter was working As IMSA official on pit Road this was when Exon was the series sponsor can't recall what year . Anyhow Mario was driving , the course went full yellow ,apparently Mario had passed the Pace car before the cutoff line to drop down onto pit road . Race control assessed a 15 second penalty stop and go .He goes around comes back in .At about 5 seconds of the penalty he starts creeping out of his pit stall by about 5 feet .My daughter walks to the front of the car Holds the stop sign and starts shaking her finger at him . I was watching him having a fit in the car at 15 seconds she let him go. Well he does his stint comes in I think he made a driver change with Bob Wolleck.Any how he confers with their crew chief and engineer a few minutes . He was walking around the pit support crew and saw my daughter again on pit road so he summons her over and begins screaming at her ,cussing I assumed in Italian . Puts his hand on her shoulder and gets right up in her face shouting " Do you KNOW WHO I AM/" She was having No part of his Intimadation . When I thought he was crossing the line with her as her dad I walked over and told him to get his hand off my daughters shoulder or WE were going to have a PROBLEM . He cussed us both out in English this time and walked away and NEVER apologized for the incident . That is when I lost all respect for him not as a driver but as a person.
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[Bob Baldwin jr]

Same event My daughter had secured garage passes and a garage parking spot for my parents both in there 70's they had driven over from clearwater to spend 5 or 6 hours at the race I gave them the keys to a golf cart and they were having a good old time bopping around all over the place Well they were getting ready to leave and someone in another golf cart hauling Mario around collided with my parents cart no more than 20 ft from where the car was parked . It was not severe but it caused my parents to get shaken a little , I go running over there to check on my parents and Mario is yelling at them. I will at least give him credit for asking my mother if she was OK. Well he starts yelling at my father telling him he should be more carefull and " DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM" all the while his driver is admitting it was his fault .
Well I got the folks calmed down and told my DAD " Why don't you follow me in the car and I will lead you out and down thru the tunnel and you can do your drive back to the motel . Well he claimed he had driven around so much he knew where he was going. So I said OK see you later and they left.BIG MISTAKE While still in the garage area he makes a mistake and turns wrong ending up on the access road to pit lane No0 idea where our wonderful Daytona security people were at the time . All this is happening as the track had gone full yellow fortuneately my daughter see's what is going on runs over to my fathers car yelling "GRAND-PA STOP" He realizes he is somewhere he should not be Makes a U turn on pit road and drives back to the garege area maybe 10 seconds latter the GTP came flying down pit road. Truly an Embarrassment to the Baldwin Clan. Don't know if that was ever captured on TV or not . As a family we never talked about it . Years latter on his death bed and under heavy sedation we were talking about An up coming event and he asked if we were there when he was racing Mario Andretti ? I had to smile and shed a tear at that one.
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[Chris Brunnemer]

those camaro's looked fast i think that they will be very competitive this year. it has gobs of power but is very big. though it being wide might help it change direction.

[Kevin Callahan]

@ Bob Baldwin: Even at the local kart track, I think most successful racers are basically dicks, whether or not you personally have a good experience with them or not. I'll admit a victory party after winning a race is much more conducive to a positive experience than a mid-race stop-and-go penalty.

Although, I think David Hobbs and Boris Said are pretty cool based on my on and off track experiences with them. Rick Mears, too. Your mileage may vary.

[Bob Baldwin jr]

Kevin: Off camera David Hobbs is quite the character.The stories he use to tell were amazing ,even if you believed only 50% of what he told you. Does anyone know what his son GUY is up to?
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Life's journey is not to arrive at the grave safely in a well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways totally worn out, shouting, "Holy **** what a ride!!!".

[George Sunderland]

Sure was awesome to see Terry Brocheller who ran karts w/ us in the early 80s on the podium. And didn't someone tell Lazarro that smoking in the car cancels and violates the terms of the rental agreement

[Lance Zabrowski]

David Hobbs is one class act, and he knows how to enjoy life. He comes to our track (Badger) occasionally to watch his grandchildren race, always very approachable and friendly. Met him a few years back at the Speedvision Party at the Malibu in Indy, he is a one fun man!
Rick Mears was a instructor at a Race School I attended years ago . One of the most down to earth guys you will ever meet. Golfs alot these days. His foot injuries are still pretty evident, he wore sandals most of the time, and rode a pit bike as opposed to walking around much. He signs every autograph "Thank You, Rick Mears" Doesn't get any better than that.